BGM Bears have no problems with Warriors in 86-6 victory

by Ryan Stonebraker 

    TAMA - The BGM Bear football team moved to 2-0 on the season with a dominant 86-6 win at Meskwaki Settlement in non-district action last Friday. The win was the first time this season that the Bears have topped the 80-point scoring mark.  BGM will return home Friday to host Twin Cedars.
      The Bears took control of the game in the first quarter, putting up 39 points in taking a 39-0 lead after the first quarter.  The Bears led 61-0 at halftime and outscored the Warriors 25-6 in the second half.
      “We got our nerves out in week one and that was good,” said BGM coach Jerod Burns.
     “We showed some improvements from our week 1 game.  I thought our offensive line played well and won every snap,” said Burns.
     The Bears took the opening kick-off back for a touchdown as Tate Martin rambled 77 yards down the far sideline for the score and the 6-0 BGM lead.  On the first Warrior possession, they fumbled and Landon Cooling recovered.  Two plays later Bear quarterback Beau Burns connected with Nathan Findlay for a 14-yard scoring pass to extend the Bears lead to 12-0 in the first minute of the game.
     The Bears would add four more touchdowns in the opening quarter and a safety to get their lead of 39-0 after the first quarter.  Burns had two more touchdown passes of to Landon Hassett for 17 yards and another to Findlay for 60 yards.  Burns also scored on touchdown runs of 1 and 23 yards in the quarter.
     In the second quarter, the Bears offense kept humming along with three more touchdowns and another safety to take a 61-0 halftime lead. Burns tossed his third touchdown of the first half with a 20-yard pass to Dakota Heishman 20 seconds into the quarter.  Later, with 5:40 left before halftime, Burns found Tucker Wright for a 29-yard touchdown pass. Burns would rush for his third score of the game, this one from 56 yards out with 1:04 left in the half.
     With a running clock activated in the second half, Meskwaki Settlement scored their only points of the game with 5:40 left in the half on a short touchdown run. BGM would then score 25 unanswered points to end the game over the final quarter and 5:40. Landon Hassett had a 33-yard run and caught a 17-yard pass from Robby Tometich in the second half.  BGM would add touchdown runs from York and Tometich to end the scoring in the game.
       “We got out of there without injury to any player and that was very good.  The junior varsity guys got a lot of time and that was good since our game with Iowa Valley earlier in the week was canceled due to hear.  They played most of the second half,” said Burns.
       The Bears racked up 499 yards of total offense in the game with 227 passing and 272 rushing yards.  Beau Burns passed for 210 yards with five touchdown passes on 8-for-8 completions and rushed for 137 yards on six carries with three touchdowns. Robby Tometich saw action in the second half and had his first varsity touchdown pass and a rushing touchdown.  Brock York and Landon Hassett also each scored a rushing touchdown.  Four different Bear receivers had at least one touchdown pass. Dakota Heishman and Nathan Findlay each had a pair of scoring catches.
       Defensively, BGM was led by Landon Cooling with six tackles, 1.5 sacks, and two fumble recoveries.  Rylan Toussaint and Brooks Davis each had fumble recoveries in the game.  Ashten Kallnay also had 1.5 sacks in the game.
     The Bears will return home this week to play Twin Cedars.  The Sabers are 0-2 with a 60-0 loss to Colo-Nesco in week one and a 62-12 loss in week 2 to Lamoni.  BGM is 3-0 over Twin Cedars including an 85-0 win last year.
     Offensively, the Sabers have used two quarterbacks, both seniors.  Dallas Smith has the most stats with 87 passing yards on 17-for-31 attempts with 1 TD and 4 INT’s.  Smith also leads Twin Cedars in rushing with 112 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown in two games. Three other rushers have at least 10 rushing attempts this year.  Four Saber receivers have caught passes led by Braxton Davis with eight receptions.  Defensively, junior Gavin Clark is the top tackler with 16.5 while freshman Slater Thomas is next with 10 tackles.